


Take My Hand

by celeste9



Category: Final Fantasy Tactics
Genre: Character Death In Dream, F/F, Minor Violence, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 23:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3430127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Was this punishment? Was she doomed to lose Ovelia, over and over and over, forced to live through her worst nightmares until the end of her days?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take My Hand

**Author's Note:**

> For fireeye in Fandom Stocking.

“Ovelia!” Agrias shouted. “Ovelia!” She pulled her sword free from the chest of the man standing between her and the princess and then ran forward. She could still see Ovelia’s body slung limply over the back of the chocobo as its rider sped away, but the image seemed to grow smaller and smaller as the distance between them grew.

Another man tried to block her way but Agrias sliced him viciously with her sword, groin to sternum, and he fell.

Agrias ran, but she could no longer even see the princess. It was as if she had vanished, and Agrias could never reach her.

-

Agrias pressed her hands to the gaping wound in Ovelia’s belly, blood seeping out between her fingers. “Stay with me, Princess, stay with me, just a little while longer.”

“It is too late,” Ovelia said, her voice raspy and hardly louder than a whisper.

“No, just hold on. Someone will come.” Someone stronger, someone stronger than Agrias, someone who could heal this. Agrias had been able to do nothing more than slow the bleeding.

It would not stop. Ovelia’s beautiful dress was wet with it.

“It’s all right, Agrias. I am ready.”

“No, no,” Agrias said, feeling the tears leaking out of her eyes. “Ovelia, no.”

“I feel safe with you,” Ovelia said, and her eyes fluttered shut.

“Don’t leave me,” Agrias begged, and clutched Ovelia to herself, but the princess was still.

-

“She has made her choice,” Delita said, a coldness in his dark eyes. 

“It is not her choice to make!” Agrias said, furious. “The princess is in my care, and I will not relinquish her to the likes of you.”

“Not even when she knows that it is me who can truly protect her? I think you know it, as well.”

“That’s a lie!”

“Agrias,” Ovelia said softly, touching her hand to Agrias’ arm. “You must let me go.”

“No, Princess. Do not ask this of me, I beg you.”

“It is my choice to make,” Ovelia said, and she was already gone.

She was already gone, and Agrias was alone.

-

Agrias knew something was wrong. She knew this couldn’t be real. Ovelia. Where was Ovelia? Was this punishment? Was she doomed to lose Ovelia, over and over and over, forced to live through her worst nightmares until the end of her days?

She knew it wasn’t real. Too much, it was too much, and it could not all be happening. Every time Agrias awoke she found herself in a new place but always the memory of what had come before lingered.

She lost Ovelia again and again, and it could not all be true, not even if it felt real. Not even if the pain in Ovelia’s eyes was real, or the sound of her screams, or the feeling of anguish in Agrias’ heart.

The worst part was not knowing. If it was not all real, part of it could be. Agrias could have lost Ovelia, truly and forever, and she might not ever know. She could live a succession of the worst events she could possibly imagine and never know if she had actually failed, if Ovelia was gone and there was no getting her back.

Agrias heard Ovelia shouting her name, panicked and frightened, and knew it was starting again.

-

“Take my hand,” Agrias said, stretching her arm out over the side of the cliff as far as she could reach, hanging off the edge.

“I can’t,” Ovelia said, clinging desperately to the side, her fingers white with the effort of holding on. 

“You can! Please, I’m right here.” Agrias daren’t move any close for fear of tumbling over the side herself.

“Leave me, go! I am the princess, you must obey me. Leave me and go.”

“Never. I will never leave you.”

“Agrias,” Ovelia said, but it wasn’t Ovelia. The voice was coming from behind her.

Agrias hardly dared to take her eyes off of Ovelia, hanging from the rocks. “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Agrias.”

“No, you’re…” Agrias looked at Ovelia, and then chanced a glance behind her. 

Ovelia, standing there, safe and whole. But it couldn’t be her.

“No, it isn’t possible! You’re right here!”

The princess dangling in the air called out, “Agrias!”

“She isn’t real,” the phantom Ovelia said, her voice calm and even. “None of this is real. You know that.”

“But…” Agrias squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to block out the vision before her. No. Ovelia was in danger. She would die if Agrias couldn’t help her, if Agrias couldn’t save her, just like before -

Just like before. Just like every other time, because it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

But if none of it was real, how could Agrias know who to trust? “You could be a trick, like all the rest, come to torment me.”

Ovelia had come closer, kneeling on the ground beside Agrias. She smelled of flowers and everything sweet and beautiful, and her hand was warm where she touched Agrias’ shoulder. “I have come to free you, but you must take my hand. Agrias, come with me.”

Agrias looked to the princess below her, the princess she would lose.

But Agrias’ princess wasn’t lost and never had been. She took Ovelia’s hand.

-

When Agrias opened her eyes, she found she was in bed. There was a mage standing nearby but Agrias had eyes only for the young woman seated beside her, the woman who had hold of her hand.

“Princess?” Agrias said. Her throat was dry.

“Agrias,” Ovelia said, filled with relief. “It worked. You have returned to us.”

“Had I gone somewhere?” Agrias furrowed her brow. She couldn’t… She couldn’t remember.

“You would not wake up,” Ovelia said, and her eyes seemed to be wet with tears. But how could that be? How could she have tears for Agrias?

“You are crying,” Agrias said in wonder, and raised her hand to Ovelia’s cheek.

“You would not wake,” Ovelia said again. 

“I am not certain I am awake now.”

Ovelia laughed, a beautiful sound, like bells, and she covered Agrias’ hand with her own. “You are awake, and all is well. You are here, with me, where you belong.”

 _Yes,_ Agrias thought. _Yes._

**_End_ **


End file.
